Mum’s act after daughter was hit by a kid divides parents

No parent wants to see their kid get pushed around or hit, but one mum’s reaction to seeing this situation play out has left her feeling awful. 
Sharing her experience on Reddit, the woman explained she was at the park with her daughter when she was hit by another kid, so she told her to “hit the kid back harder”. 
“Now I feel awful,” she explained in the post, but surprisingly a lot of mums sided with her on how she handled it. 
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“My 2F toddler loves the park. She’s a gentle giant and makes friends with all the kids. There was another toddler 2M at the park along with other kids and his grandparents (around 80s),” she wrote. 
“My kid was going down steps holding on to the sides while the boy was trying to go up. The kid got frustrated and slapped my kid’s chest.” 
She explained the other kid was a lot smaller than her daughter, who just stood there in shock after being hit before starting to cry.
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“She’s not used to anyone hitting her ever. We didn’t raise her like that nor playing with other violent kids. She was wearing a dress and you could now see the red mark of a hand slap on her chest,” she continued. 
“I looked at the grandpa who was standing next to the boy and his reaction triggered me. He laughed and said to his wife, ‘Oh my, [name] is being a boy’.”
The mum said that reaction just triggered her and she snapped. 
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“I looked at my kid in the eye and said loudly “YOU’RE A BIG GIRL, BIGGER THAN THAT BOY. NEXT TIME HE HITS YOU, YOU HIT HIM HARDER”. The grandpa instantly started apologising and they left the park,” the post continued. 
“I do not want to teach my kid to be violent, but I also don’t want her to become a punchbag like her poor old sister.” 
The post definitely fired up a lot of parents, and there are plenty of people who had no issue with how she handled the situation. 
“As someone who’s a fan of “Do no harm, but take no s–t,” I applaud you,” commented one Reddit user. 
Another wrote, “My kid went to a very ‘physical’ preschool. Always came home with damage to her body. We started teaching her to block, and block hard. If they get hurt by you blocking their punch it’s not your fault.” 
“You didn’t encourage violence, you encouraged self-defense. That’s something we should encourage of women and girls more,” added another user. 
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The granddad’s ‘boys will be boys’ comment was the biggest issue a lot of people found with what happened. 
“Honestly, I don’t see anything wrong here. Boys being boys is not a hall pass for violence against girls or women. Good job Mum. A+ in my book,” wrote one person.
Another mum commented, “Boys being boys is such a cop out to not teaching their kids any better. Mum of 2 boys here. Neither of my boys are violent and for damn sure learned early not to ever ever ever hit a girl. It’s all fun and games until it’s their kid.” 
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But people pointed out that just telling a toddler to fight back, isn’t actually going to teach anyone anything. 
“He’s 2. I really don’t think it warranted that response. I get being protective but you don’t yell stuff like that. What a weird thought to even have. You should feel bad,” one person replied.
Despite not agreeing with how she handled it, one person reassured her not to feel too bad and wrote, “Normally I’d agree with you but dang that’s intense for two year olds they are still learning …. I will say, that grandpa is a turd. Pregnancy hormones make the natural mama bear instinct even more intense so I would say don’t feel too bad.”
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